Click on the scripture reference and read these verses: Matthew 5:13-16
I believe that the Church is the greatest earthly hope that we have in existence. i don't mean buildings, I don't mean the Roman Catholic, or any other, denomination. I am simply referring to the people who have a relationship with Jesus Christ, God's Son, who died on a cross for our sins and came back to life three days later. For me, these are indisputable facts. Maybe science hasn't proven their validity, but neither has it disproven them. Besides, I have first-hand experience with a relationship with Jesus, through my faith and trust in Him, that would hold past any scientific challenge. "A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument." (unknown)
Yet just as I believe that the Church is the greatest earthly hope, in that we are the tangible touch of Christ to the world around us as He is living through us, we also have developed some serious flaws through the years since our institution. In the verses we read at the beginning, which are in red and the actual words of Jesus, He calls us salt and light. I have been dwelling on these verses for a while now and want to share with you what I have learned. Though it will be in reverse order from what's listed, I'd first like to look at "light."
We, the Church, are light in this world. Darkness cannot hide from light when in the same room or space. The only way light can be kept from penetrating darkness is to be shut out in some way. Think of a dark room in a basement with no windows and only one door. If the door is sealed well, whatever light is on the outside of the door will never reach the inside of the room. However, open the door, and whatever light is shining just outside will flood the darkness and, depending on its brightness, illumine everything it touches to some degree. Darkness cannot stop it.
The light that is in us is the Light of Jesus Christ. It is the light of truth, justice, mercy, grace, love, forgiveness--all of the traits and characteristics of God; the fruit of the Spirit, if you will. Simply because Jesus, in the form of the Holy Spirit, resides in us, so does His light as even our sin nature cannot hide the glory of God. Darkness is powerless against such light. Just as God is eternal, so is the light of His glory within us. It will never be quenched. Stars that illumine our night skies are seen by the human eye thousands of years after they have been extinguished because of the time it takes for the light to reach the earth from its source. Yet this light, the light of His glory, will never be snuffed out. It is indeed eternal. It reaches past our bracketed existence on this planet.
Light is what we carry to the world. The very source of the light lives in us if we have chosen to believe in the work Jesus did on the cross and in His being who He said He was, the very Son of God. The closer we draw in relationship with Jesus, He also draws nearer to us and that light shines even the brighter. Our dark world needs light. Much of it maybe even craves light. Light is what we bring as the Church. We reflect it much in the same way the moon reflects the sun. When light is reflected, the brightness of the reflected light is dependent on the substance of the reflective material. For example, a white sheet will reflect light, but when foil is used, the reflected light is much brighter than what was elected off the sheet. The brightness of the light we reflect depends on our substance, and our substance depends on the depth of our relationship with Christ.
But just as light is what we bring, salt is how we bring it.
Let's look at just a couple of characteristics of salt. Salt makes things taste better. It seasons. When we sit down at the table, or cook food for others, we often season the food with salt to bring more flavor. Salt also preserves. You can salt meat and preserve it a little longer. However, unlike light, salt is temporary. Eventually, salt can and will lose its flavor.
As the Church, in my personal observation, we more often get the "light" part right than we do the "salt." After all, the light really isn't us, it's Jesus. We don't have to do much for light to come through. But salt? That requires much more effort. When we see evidence around us that "the world is going to hell in a hand basket," as we often put it, we normally get pretty self-righteous and feel the need to defend Jesus and/or our faith. We act surprised at what is going on.
Yet, have you ever noticed that God has never entered a day where He called Gabriel over and told him to go warm up the trumpet because God was surprised by something that a non-believer did the day before? Lost people act lost! God's not surprised by that, so why are we? When there is a Supreme Court decision, an act of terrorism, a school shooting, a video from Planned Parenthood, or some other social ill, we adopt a sudden sense of urgency to do something to stop it. Yet if we really felt that "urgent," we would've been doing something all along, right? But in our sudden urgency, we sit down the salt shaker and pick up the persimmon juice. What we offer to the world, while true, now tastes very bitter and unwelcoming. No wonder it gets rejected so often.
Salt is mined. It is in huge rocks or stones. Larger rocks of salt have their uses, but it looks much different than what we see in shakers on tables. Meat can be laid onto rocks of salt for seasoning or preservation. Unlike what is found in shakers, food must be brought to the salt, not the other way around. For salt to reach the food, it must first be crushed or ground. Could it be that this is true for us, as Christians, as well? Before we can be the most useful, there must be a season of crushing or breaking. It's not that we can't be used without being broken, but we depend on others to come to us. Our sense of urgency may be less. We still season. We still carry light. We just haven't been through a life event that has brought us to the point where we can be poured out before others as a drink offering to them.
Once salt is crushed, unless salt is poured out onto the food, it can't reach it's highest potential of seasoning the food. You can sit a salt shaker on the table. In that way, it can be among the food; it can be a part of the offering at every meal. Yet, until it is poured out, touches the food, covers the food, it cannot season the food. This is why I'm extremely apprehensive about religious freedom laws. It gives us Christians yet another excuse to not be poured out and serve in humility. It allows us to stay in the shaker and even attach a spiritual label to it so that our greed sounds legitimate. Not that everyone would do that, or be that way, but my experience has taught me that many look for just such excuses. It gives a voice that we can use to not be the tangible touch of Christ to someone who may be looking for hope, for light. Why would we ever want to do that?
We trade the seasoning power of salt to offer a "taste and see the Lord is good" opportunity to the world, and try to serve the light we carry in glasses of persimmon juice. For those who have never had persimmon juice, it is extremely bitter and makes the lips pucker. It is a very unpleasant experience. As believers, we hear or see truth and are drawn to it because the Truth lives in our hearts. The world around us is unfamiliar with Truth and that is why we are called to be salt (seasoning those around us in ways that we are pleasing to be around and deliver Truth in palatable ways) and light (also delivering truth that isn't watered down nor wavering). Why is it that we can't do both?
Be light today. Be salt today. Give truth, but only in a way that is pleasing and seasons those who need the truth. That is how we change the world starting with the one beside us.
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